What do you like to hear? And from whom?

Do you like being told you’re early at the supermarket? Is the person subversively criticizing you for all the times you went there late? Some days, I was so late, that their newspapers had all sold out. Other days, I was one day late and asking for the previous day’s newspapers. So when I hear the cashier say that I’m early today, I wonder if she is poking fun at me for being late on all the other days. Probably not. She could have been innocently trying to make small talk.